The Government deploys "START Team" facilities in Ceuta to bolster efforts to assist migrants

The Government of Spain has begun shipping infrastructure belonging to its flagship START team (Spanish Technical Humanitarian Response Team) to Ceuta, with the aim of strengthening identification efforts and providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in the Autonomous City, in order to streamline the procedures for the return of those who are not recognised as having the right to international protection.

This scheme, as Minister Ángel Víctor Torres explained, "will be set up to prioritise, where necessary, providing care to vulnerable women and their children".

The START facilities - provided by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, which falls under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation - include ten 42-square-metre tents and forty 36-square-metre inflatable-arch tents. This amounts to a total area of over 1,800 square metres and an on-site capacity to care for up to 600 people.

Minister Torres, who is coordinating logistical support in his capacity as the competent authority, explained that "today, the fourteen lorries carrying this infrastructure and the components required for its assembly will be loaded at Algeciras, and work on setting it up in Ceuta could begin as soon as possible".

This new equipment - notable for its operational autonomy and rapid installation, and previously used in emergencies such as the DANA weather events - complements other ongoing shipments from the Ministry of Defence that include additional tents and bunk beds.

All of these facilities will be added to the social and humanitarian aid tents already set up in the designated areas for the registration of migrants, thereby strengthening operational capacity and the immediate response in the area.

Non official translation